I think the convergence of environmental concerns and tourism promotion is the best, rather one of the most lucrative, businesses in the world. Engineers at Ventura County are perhaps trying to something of that sort.
They are planning to build the nation’s first successful ‘artificial surf reef’ at Oil Piers, an accidentally created surfing hot spot that disappeared with the demolition of a pier in 1998. The project was proposed by BEACON (Beach Erosion and Clean Ocean Nourishment). BEACON is a coalition that comprises Santa Barbara and Ventura city and county officials.
To build a submerged reef at just the right angle for creating waves, the Army Corps of Engineers would fill 700,000 pounds of synthetic tubes with water and sand. The reef would be 50 feet wide, with a length of about 140 feet, according to the plan.
While on one hand, surfers hope that the $4 million project will be reviving waves at the once most reliable surf spots — the picturesque Southern California coast; on the other, environmentalists hope that the artificial reef will help stop massive erosion that is eating away at the beach.
Gary Ross, head of the Stanley’s Reef Foundation — a nonprofit group – said,
It was the only place that when the wind really, really blew, you could still surf.
Besides that, it was kind of a cool spot — a little bit of a bohemian spot with a young group of surfers.
